give ear

present singular third person gives ear · participle present giving ear · past gave ear · participle past given ear

1. archaicidiomaticintransitiveTo listen: to devote one's attention to an auditory event.

   Give ear to his motions: Master Slender, I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   1 more example

   Leaves and rain and the days of the year, (Water-willow and wellaway,) All these fall, and my soul gives ear

   1882, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, A Death-Parting, lines 5–6

   Synonyms: lend an ear